WOLEENDEN DEBATE SIR,—Is the fight between Michael Foot and Pharos
a private fight or may any reader of the Spectator join in? In the latter case, will you permit me to express my surprise at the answer which Pharos gives to the charge against him? The Wollenden Committee 4t least proposes to punish prostitutes for their own acts. Pharos proposes apparently to punish them for the acts of others. His case is that because these indecent women appear on certain streets in the West End, indecent men go there to find them, and these indecent men occasionally insult decent women by mistaking them for prostitutes. If this is the fact, why does Pharos propose to punish the women for the acts of the men? Why does he not propose to punish the men for their own acts? Is it because prostitutes have no friends; so that it is much' easier to deal unjustly with them than to deal justly with the real offenders? I leave Mr. Foot to deal with the suggestion that he seeks to justify this misconduct of men, What I am Curious to know is how Pharos seeks to justify his own conduct —Yours faithfully,
W. LYON BLEASE 42 Oriel Chambers, 14 Water Street, Liverpool 2 [Pharos writes: 'Certainly legislation against soliciting should apply to men who accost women, as well as vice-versa.'—Editor, Spectator.]
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